


Church Bells Toll

by jit



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, But Leorio Is There For Him, Canon Compliant, Doctor Leorio Paladiknight, Fluff and Angst, Kurapika Is Going Through It, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, References to Depression, References to Drugs, Road Trips, Strangers to Lovers, Suicidal Thoughts, yet is is also
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27623782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jit/pseuds/jit
Summary: “Answer me,” he grits out when he still doesn’t respond with nothing more than a chuckle. “You break into my house and have danger at my doorstep! You owe me the generosity of your name and you better pray that I don’t kill you.”The man runs a hand through his messy, spiky hair and gives that stupid, wonky smile again before putting his hands in his pockets. “Technically, you let me in. I just took the offer.”This would be around the time Kurapika would ask for forgiveness from some obscene god if they were to ever exist and swing the bat into his head. But he finds himself faltering at the usually easy task and his eyebrows pinch together in confusion.“What?” he sputters, “No I didn’t!”“Well, you did. Did you not psychically open the door?”- - - -or; Kurapika, after completing his journey of finding all the eyes of his lost clan, is left to figure what to do with the future left ahead of him. In the middle of the night, Leorio bursts into his apartment and then figures he should just take place in Kurapika's unfortellable life while he's at it.
Relationships: Kurapika/Leorio Paladiknight
Comments: 28
Kudos: 113





	1. When Life Gets You Nowhere

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for deciding to read my story! 
> 
> i would hope to complete this story in 2-4 parts, so if the number of chapters changes, it means i added more to the story than i had originally planned.

The thought to take a shower first passed in his head when he bounded his way into his apartment. His blazer was ripped to the point he was curious how it still managed to stay on his person and his nice dress pants had become ripped on the knees and the legs as if he was trying to invent some new sort of style. Instead, he used his arms to wipe off the dirt and splatters of blood still dotting his face, the sleeve of his white dress shirt coming back to his vision a dark brown when he pulled away. He swept his blond fringe from out of his eyes and stumbled out of his barely furnished living room and into a backroom much more so bare. He turned on the light to brighten up the room, slinging the duffle bag in his sore arm lazily onto a table. It gently hit the surface, him careful not to break what was inside the bag. 

His hands trembled as he opened the bag by its zipper, the noise louder than the screams of agony of the man he pierced through the heart while it rang in his ears. These days, everything inanimate was louder than screams, louder than cries, louder than bombs. Finally, after hesitant pauses, he got the duffle bag open, the polyester gliding over his hands like it’ll leave a paper cut. Not wanting to waste any more time, he takes a large jar out of the bag, filled with a perseverance gell and eyes glowing in its substance. 

The last pair of scarlet eyes. 

He turns the jar around in his hands gingerly, it was cool underneath his touch like it came out of a refrigerator rather than traveled hours in a warm jeep across multiple cities. His own eyes gazed over the jar, studying the red iris floating into the gel and chokes before turning away. He knew those eyes from anywhere, the flicks of gold only belonged to one person in his clan. A guilty feeling washed over him and forced himself to look again, holding the jar to his chest more needily, his body finding the wall, needing something to lean on while he fought for his composure. 

“I’m sorry, Father,” he feels foolish talking to a jar of eyes, but he’s been through this thirty-five times now and he didn’t care if he looked just as foolish each time. “It’s just, looking away was more from relief than anything. I think Mother would be happy to know you’re here now.”

After a few more quiet pants for breath, he leans from off of the wall and turns to the only thing in this room besides the wooden floors and rigidity table-- the bookshelf containing thirty-five more pairs of glowing eyes. Tenderly, he sets the far beside another pair in a jar, staring at him. Anyone else looking at these eyes would see money signs first, but after that, they would realize they couldn’t tell the eyes apart, not like he could. They wouldn’t see his family in those eyes. 

“Mother,” he says softly, adjusting her jar just a bit, “after a long while, I found Father. I know you missed him, your cries hunted me in my sleep… or maybe it’s the deprivation. I can’t tell anymore. This is it. This is all of our clan.”

Stupidly, like a dependent child, he awaits an answer. His eyes dance amongst the jars, waiting for word. He forces himself to step away and to remember he’s the only here with a soul. The rest are just unjust spirits living in jars. He limps back to the front of the room, picking up the duffle bag, and turns off the light. 

“Goodnight,” he tells the jars meekly, shutting the door behind his descending form. 

Kurapika’s been on this journey since he was nine years old. With every new door that he unlocks another is waiting there, unbreakable. That has been his life for thirteen years now, but back then as an inconsolable child with heavy survivor’s guilt, he couldn’t do anything for his clan but seeth in rage and sadness. Now he’s wielding chains wrapped around his knuckles and a tainted heart that blurs right and wrong and merely calls it all justice in the end. 

He used to cry at first; after taking lives. The smell of blood was strong and the stench of sin was prudent and never rubbed off--it followed him everywhere. His tears never fixed anything and never did feelings either, because if they did his clan would still be here and he wouldn’t be searching the world for their eyeballs while their form of being was lost in the fire. So he stopped crying and stopped caring, his fist just pulled without mercy when the Spiders wouldn’t break or his nun-chucks harmed after impatience. And after all of that, after all of that killing or injuring, he’d drive hours back to his empty apartment settled in York New and face the feeling of loneliness once more. 

But now all of that is over. The killing, and fighting. Kurapika figured maybe the pain in his heart would disappear too, but it’s still there. And it’s pounding against his ribcage like it’ll make him explode. He lived all of his life piecing together his family, secretly hoping, in the end, it’ll make him complete again too. But somehow the loneliness is much thicker and it’s enveloping him into his own little cocoon. He lived all of his life for vengeance and hate, never once thinking he’d have a life after it was all said in done. He needs to bury his family, he knows this much. However, after that, it’s always a background thought to just join them in whatever afterlife they go to next. 

After taking a shower and patching up his wounds as best as possible, he went back to his living room and laid along the couch. The feeling of hunger panged him but he felt he didn’t deserve to eat, despite this final victory. Training his eyes to the outdated tv on the cheap stand he found someplace he couldn’t remember and dazed out. 

His eyes must’ve closed at some point of staring at the unfunny sitcom because when he opens his eyes it’s all info commercials and banging on his apartment door. 

Kurapika sits up rigid, he can see the glow of his eyes in the hue of the wall beside him. He listens for a moment more at the persistent knocking on the door before finding the strength to move and reach for the baseball bat he always kept at the side of the couch. He left his nun-chucks in his bedroom he can’t bring himself to sleep in because it’s too far away from the front door. His logic seemed to do him well as he picked up the sleek metal and inched himself off of the couch. His bare feet padded consciously to the door, the tv going numb in his mind while he walked to the small foyer. After mentally counting to three, he unlocks the door and swings it open, getting ready to do a batter’s swing that would knock blood.

  
  


Kurapika heard a whimper leave his mouth when his body knocked backward and hit the wall, the baseball bat thumping to the floor with a clang, and his front door slammed shut afterward. Kurapika wasn’t tall or exactly intimidating in stature, but he was reasonably strong without his nen abilities, especially when it came to thinking quick in dire situations. So it startles him when he finds himself pinned against his wall as if he was nothing more than a ragdoll. Angrily, Kurapika whips his head up to meet the eyes of the intruder, opening his mouth to shout but a large hand clasps over this mouth. That only leaves his eyes to do the focusing for him. Hovering over him is a tall, lanky man. He’s dressed in a white-dressed shirt and slacks, a lab coat hiding most of his formal wear. He’s wearing glasses that dangle off his nose, like an elderly man, one lens shattered. 

His ears pick up on footsteps trailing outside of his door. They falter there for a moment and the stranger and him meet eyes, his showing fear, and Kurapika’s certain his are, too--but for different reasons. Kurapika wishes he could mute the tv, as the audio feels blaring but he’s certain it’s not as loud as he’s making it. His body and the intruder’s smushed together in a little gap of the corridor felt agonizingly hot as they waited for the people to pass by. Kurapika knows his eyes are glowing and that’s all the strange man is looking at, taking deep, heaved breaths as if he had run a marathon. For what felt like forever finally ended when a muffled voice called out and the footsteps scurried off in another direction. For a split second, they stayed like that, huddled together until Kurapika snapped back to being on alert and pushed the man off of him, making him stumble back and find purchase on the wall to not fall on his ass. 

“Who are you and what the fuck are you doing?!” Kurapika shouts, using his foot to roll the bat back to him, quickly picking it up again and getting into a swinging stance. 

The man wobbled onto the soles of his dress shoes--all parts him put together in a dressy, yet clumsy way. He reached up and pushed his broken glasses back up his nose, staring at him sheepishly, but Kurapika knows he’s searching for the red glow of his eyes, however, Kurapika managed to turn it off when he pushed him away.

“Answer me,” he grits out when he still doesn’t respond with nothing more than a chuckle. “You break into my house, and have danger at my doorstep! You owe me the generosity of your name and you better pray that I don’t kill you.”

The man runs a hand through his messy, spiky hair and gives that stupid, wonky smile again before putting his hands in his pockets. “Technically, you let me in. I just took the offer.”

This would be around the time Kurapika would ask for forgiveness from some obscene god if they were to ever exist and swing the bat into his head. But he finds himself faltering at the usually easy task and his eyebrows pinch together in confusion.

“What?” he sputters, “No I didn’t!”

“Well, you did. Did you not psychically open the door?”

“I opened the door because you were knocking on it like a maniac!” Kurapika says, “I never invited you in!”

The man shrugs and gives him another dorky smile that Kurapika wants to punch off of his face. “Either way, thanks for that. Those guys just won’t give up. You give your patients cannabis a couple of times and the cops think you’re a death token!”

  
  


“That was the police?!” Kurapika shouts, rushing to look through his peephole.

“Geez, calm down,” the man says with a sigh, “they couldn’t come in here without a warrant, anyways.” When Kurapika turns to glare at him, he smirks in return, “what, are you hiding something?”

“N-no!” Kurapika chokes out, looking off to the left of himself. “You still haven’t told me your name.” 

“Are you still planning to kill me afterward if I tell you? Personally, I don’t think that’s a fair deal.”

Kurapika pauses to look back down at his hands, grumbling when he sets the bat against the wall tentatively. Like he found that as a good enough answer, the man pops the collar of his lab coat and speaks.

“Leorio Paladinknight M.D.,” is all he says and Kurapika stares at him deadpanned, irritated. “And you are?”

“None of your concern. Now show yourself out of my house. And if you ever have the police after you again, don’t come to my door. I don’t care to be tied to your back-alley doctoring.”

“It’s not back-alley doctoring. I’m an actual doctor with my own clinic, certainly, you’ve been there before,” Leorio explains, eyeing the bandaged cuts on Kurapika’s arms and legs and he covers what he can with his hands, his face warm. 

“I’ve never heard of you, and with the way you have the police on your ass, you’re not a very good doctor.”

Leorio crosses his arms and puts on a serious expression. “I’m the best at what I do, which why they’re after me. I used cannabis with my internally ill patients. Science has proved it helps, but because it’s a criminalized drug, it’s basically banned in the practice of medicine. At least, around here it is.”

Kurapika, even though he should be kicking Leorio out, is curious. “So they have evidence against you?”

“Not exactly, only an assumption and the words of people who held grudges with me. But that’s not enough to convict me. I just need to lay low for a while.”

Kurapika’s eyes widen and he raises his arms out. “No, no, no.”

“Oh, come on--”

“You cannot stay here. Absolutely not.”

“Just until the cops are out of the area, and I’ll be outta your hair!” Leorio practically pleads, walking closer with each step Kurapika took away from him and his puppy eyes. “I’ll pay you!”

“Are you calling me broke?” 

“N-no! I mean, you _prefer_ to live like this?”

“Get out.”

“Please, man, please,” Leorio clasps his hands together. “I’ll sleep on the couch, and I won’t ask for anything.”

Kurapika has never shown kindness. And if he ever did, it wasn’t salvageable. Kindness goes beyond pleases and thank yous and catching things that fall or holding doors open for those going in after you. Kindness was optional and best generally behind closed doors, and people have barely shown him that. And Certainly not this man in front of him who could’ve gotten them both in trouble. He tells himself this isn’t kindness, rather, that he couldn’t have Leorio caught leaving his apartment if the police were in the area still. This is not kindness, because he doesn’t know what that is. It’s simply logic. 

“Okay,” he says and he has a deep feeling he will regret this. “You can stay.”

“Yes, thank you--!”

Kurapika holds a finger out, “you are allowed in the kitchen, the living room, and the bathroom. But never, are you ever, allowed in my bedroom or the room across from it. Ever. Is that clear?”

“As clear as crystal, little blondie.”

“Call me that again and you can find somewhere else to squat.”

“Then tell me your name or you’ll suffer my nicknames.” 

Kurapika scoffs, wrapping his arms around his shivering body as he was wearing nothing but a tee-shirt and shorts, stalking down the hallway of his apartment. “It’s late. I’m going to bed.”

“Awe, so soon, little blondie? We just became friends!”

Kurapika gifts him with the sound of his bedroom door slamming closed behind him.


	2. Fixer Upper

Leorio sighs out when the door to the mysterious blonde’s bedroom closes, leaving him in the solitude of the living room. He puts his hands on his hips and looks at his surroundings and, boy, is it kind of sad. There’s only a single couch pushed up against the wall separating the kitchenette from the living room. The TV is on a wooden stand, a lady presenting him with the price of a tea set. Leorio’s certain if he spoke he could hear his own echo talk back to him. It was so spacious in extreme minimalism like the little blondie barely lived here. Luckily for him, the couch already has a couple of pillows and a thick blanket settled on it, so he shrugs out of his coat, takes off his tie and dress shirt. He lays on the makeshift bed in his tee-shirt and pants. 

Moments ago, he was panicking, running around his office and rushing to get things into his briefcase when he peeked out of the door and saw police officers talking to Marie at the reception desk. He knew they were coming, but he didn’t know when, and he was too busy attending to his patients to hide the marijuana. Yet Marie--bless her heart--was able to stall them long enough for him to stash the drug away in his hidden safe and make a swift run for it out the back of the clinic. Unbeknownst to him, a cop saw his reflection in one of the windows and hurried out of the front with his goons to catch up to him. Leorio knew he could lose them if he took cover in one of the apartments in the complexes not too far from his clinic, so while the cops trailed him by car, he didn’t stop moving through the woods, the scary yet efficient shortcut to his destination. 

By the time he made it to the apartment building, two police cars were already in the parking lot and knocking on doors, no doubt asking if anyone had seen a description that looked like him. Running out of options and ready to face the risks, Leorio bounds up the stairs of the complex, causing attention to himself.

“There he is!” Shouted one of them, Leorio cursed underneath his breath and picked up his pace not seconds after he heard footsteps running up the stairs behind him. He couldn’t afford to look behind himself, making a turn to spare some time and started pounding on the first door he came into contact with. 

Once the door was opened, he pushed himself through. He heard a light exclaim from the person inside the home when he closed the door behind him, pushing the innocent tenant against the wall and covering their mouth. Within the tension, all they could do is stare at each other. They were a man small in stature, with neck-length light blonde hair and a ruby red earring dangled gracefully from his right ear. Leorio would think he struck gold on who’s home to impose his presence on--shivering at the thought of it being a bodybuilder or a very athletic person--if it wasn’t from the red glow of his eyes, narrowed in confusion and anger. They stayed squashed together from what seemed like forever until the cop that was on his trail gave up on finding him and told the group they lost him. 

And now, after having his life threatened by not only the police but the little blondie himself, albeit justified, he finds himself unscathed--well, besides his glasses that cracked when he fell in the woods--on the stranger's couch. It smelled like him, lemony yet sweet, so he’s fairly sure he was laying here when Leorio made his sudden entrance. After a while of flipping through the channels, which wasn’t much because  _ of course _ little blondie only had basic cable, he fell asleep eventually. 

Leorio jumps up when he hears a scream, looking around in the dark saved for the television illuminating the room. It came from down the hall and the doctor in him has the urge to check up on little blondie, but he remembers he’s not allowed to go into his room and settles his head back onto the pillow, keeping his eyes open. A few minutes later, he hears the bedroom door creak open and after a pause, feet lightly pad down the hallway and into the kitchen. The kitchen light flickers on, cups clinks together, and the faucet turns on. Quietly. Leorio removes the blanket from off of his body, walking into the kitchen, tentatively knocking on its entrance.

Little blondie gazes from his cup at Leorio and the soft expression Leorio is only sure is seen off guard turns into one of tautness. He turns away from Leorio and continues to take quiet sips of his water.

“I’m sorry,” he says, “did I wake you up?”

Leorio, unsure if little blondie knows he yells in his sleep, shakes his head. “No, not at all. I was up for a bit now--can’t go back to sleep.”

The blonde nods his head curtly, going back to drinking his water. Leorio can’t help but trail the bandages on his arms and legs, and how when he moves he makes quiet winces, almost like he’s used to it.

“You know,” Leorio says before he can stop himself, “if you don’t clean your injuries well, you can get infected because those bandages are poorly done.”

Leorio freezes up when he slowly turns around to look at him, setting down the cup in his hands onto the counter. “Do you like to hear yourself talk?”

“What,” Leorio mutters out, blinking in confusion.

“I mean, you must. Because you say things when nobody has asked for your input or has said anything to you that requires an answer. So, do you like the sound of your voice?”

Leorio scoffs, he can’t tell if he’s being serious or not, because his tone says sarcasm but his face read clueless to what he assumes is a rhetorical question. 

“Are you always this mean to people?” Leorio finds himself saying bluntly, “I was only trying to be helpful. Sorry to bother you, I guess.” Leorio turns back out of the kitchen, taking a step to go back to his spot on the couch. 

“Wait,” the blonde says tentatively, making Leorio turn away. He was looking at the ground, his brown eyes looking at the tiles. “I’m sorry. That was rude of me. I’m not used… to having people around.”

Leorio’s smiles and waves away the apology, “don’t worry about it.”

Leorio can see him mentally scrambling for words to say, so he waits until he looks up. “Wait here,” he instructed him, passing by and opening and closing the door to the bathroom after he went inside.

Leorio awkwardly stands in the entrance of the kitchen, straightening up from his slump against the threshold when he comes back out of the bathroom, carrying a first aid kit. He walks up to Leorio and tentatively places it into his hands. Leorio’s not cocky enough to make the blonde say he wanted the help out loud, so he takes the obvious gesture and leads the way to the living room, little blondie following him. 

Leorio points to the couch when he stands in the center of the room, uncertain about what to do. He nods his head and sits on the couch, Leorio took his place on the floor, sitting as comfortably as he could even though his legs were telling him he’s way too tall to sit crossed-legged. Leorio busies himself by opening the box, surprised to see all the efficient things he’d need to then to the blonde’s wounds, more so that it exceeds what anyone would actually need since first aid kits are usually for emergencies. It makes him wonder how many ‘emergencies’ little blondie has.

Leorio starts unwrapping the bandages around his legs, relieved to see it’s not as bad as the dried blood on the sterile tape makes it. Gently, he presses around one of the gash’s to predict how deep it is, and the blonde makes a strained noise in retaliation. 

“I’m sorry,” Leorio mumbles, concentrated on taking out the antiseptic spray and some butterfly stitches. “Luckily, it’s not deep. I thought I'd have to do stitches there for a second. These should do.” 

“It’s fine,” he responds softly, and they settle into an uneasy silence, but Leorio wasn’t bothered by it as he was focused on correctly patching little blondie up. 

Surprisingly to Leorio, he speaks up first. “So… what kind of doctor are you, exactly?”

“I’m a pediatrician, mostly.”

“Mostly?”

Leorio laughs lightly, “that sounds sketchy, doesn’t it? What I mean is that I usually work with kids, but I’m also a family doctor. All done with your legs, hold out your arms.”

The blonde does as he’s told and holds them out, Leorio unwrapping his bandages and peeling off the bandaids he put on the little scratches. “I see. And you have a clinic?”

“I do, these apartments are right behind it. I just started it, but I’m getting more business than I’ve expected.” Leorio answers, smiling at the fact but then he kind of grimaces when he realizes barely six months in he’s already got the cops on his ass over drugs--which is very ironic for a doctor when you think about it. “And what do you do to accumulate all these injuries?”

The body stops trembling under his touch, placing his newly bandaged arm onto his lap before sheepishly biting his lip. “It’s… tedious work. I don’t like doing it, but it pays well and… stuff.”

“Mhmm,” Leorio hums, unconvinced. “And when do you go back to this tedious job?”

The blonde opens his mouth to give an automatic answer but his voice falters as if realizing something. “I don’t… I don’t go back there anymore.”

Leorio frowns, sitting on his knees to reach his face, muttering a small ‘sorry’ when he hisses as Leorio peels off the band-aids on his cheek and eyebrow. He dabs a cotton ball on the scars, their eyes meeting once more, Leorio only just noticing how deep brown they were. It didn’t help that his skin was soft too while he gingerly worked to replace the band-aids. He was… pretty, for lack of a better word. Very pretty.

“What?” Leorio whispers, and he doesn’t know why he does, it just felt appropriate when they’re so close, like back in the hallway. “Forgot you quit?”

The blonde looked away from him, his fist curled on his lap. “Something like that.”

Leorio’s knuckle lightly brushes his cheek when he finishes putting on the last bandaid, his eyes trailing back to his when he felt that Leorio was seemingly done playing doctor on him. But Leorio didn’t move his hand away, instead, he says, “Last night, your eyes… they… they were red. Like--like scarlet red.”

The blond’s eyes widen and he lets out a soft gasp, pushing Leorio’s hand away gently even though Leorio could tell there was some restraint in that gesture. He stands up, leaving Leorio kneeling there on the floor. 

“I think all that adrenaline went to your head, you were seeing things,” he tells him monotonically. It was a strained explanation that Leorio couldn’t see through. Within this short time, Leorio feels like he knows all there is about this stranger because of how closed off he is. 

Leorio doesn’t say anything in response, getting the feeling if he prolonged this topic any longer little blondie would kick him out in the cold. Instead, he gets back on his feet and starts to pick up the old bandages to throw away. 

“Thank you,” he mutters, his hair falling into his face at his subtle bow of gratitude. He looked much more comfortable walking and Leorio could stop fretting that he was in pain. 

“No problem,” Leorio replies with a beam, giving him a cheesy thumbs up that he scoffed at.

“In reward of dressing my injuries, I suppose I can tell you my name.”

Leorio whips his body around quicker than he would like, “I’m listening.”

Leorio catches the light twerk of his lips in amusement, his arms clasped behind his back. “It’s Kurapika.”

Kurapika…. Kurapika.

“Kurapika,” Leorio says out loud, and quietly likes how it rolls off of his tongue. “Honestly, I was very close to calling you little blondie again if you still refused to tell me.”

Kurapika rolls his eyes, back to being his aloof self, disappearing out of the living room. Leorio figured his fun was over and he’d hear the door to Kurapika’s bedroom shut. But his footsteps stop in the kitchen and the refrigerator opens. After a beat, Kurapika says, 

“I’m not the best cook but are you hungry?”

Leorio grins to himself, raising his voice, “oh, sure! I could go for something.”

  
  
  
  
  
  



	3. Departure

The last person Kurapika talked to was a girl named Melody, two days ago. It was just before he was set to enter the museum of which his father’s eyes were on display, to be ogled at amongst other stolen artifacts from over the world. They were briefly working together at the bodyguard position he had barely managed to snag just in time for the museum's grand reopening after a bunch of knock-off Spiders tried to steal from it. Kurapika had been in the city for a while and dealt with them accordingly, he would be damned if they prolonged his pain and exhaustion for any longer. 

“Your heart sounds tired,” Melody has informed him.

He was packing up all he brought with him on the mission, which wasn’t much; just some hygiene products and a few changes of suits. Kurapika was once annoyed with her always telling him these things, he didn’t like to be read. And he didn’t like her advice after the fact she told him what he already knew, that he was angry, or sad, or mentally beaten down. He didn’t understand how she figured out all of this just from the pounding of his heart, it was already enough that the organ felt like it was constantly looking for a way out of his chest.

“I’m fine,” he says, zipping up his duffle bag and throwing on his blazer over his ironed white shirt. “You should sleep, you have to arrive at the airport early.” 

Melody stands up from where she sat at the end of her bed, “but, what about you? You don’t even look well-rested.”

Kurapika is usually snappy and, well, rude. He doesn’t feel the need to be nice to others, as he’s learned the world was corrupt and the only ones to ever see his kind side were children, as they weren’t persuaded by the evilness of the world yet. But Melody was an expectation, her whole entire presence was calming by nature and although he was annoyed with her frequent concern, he could never tell her that to her face.

“Tonight is the only night I can do the mission I even took this job to do. After tonight, I won’t need this job, or any other job like it,” he tells her in a soft manner, gazing at her to let her see he wasn’t lying or trying to hide anything from her, not like he could if he really tried. “It was great meeting you, Melody, and you were the most refreshing thing about this job.”

She smiles at him, placing her hand on his shoulder. “It’s something really important, I can tell. Your face can hide it but your heart will always be honest. That goes for many things. Don’t think that you have lost yourself, Kurapika, because even though it doesn’t feel like it at all, your life will only just start the moment you walk out of that door.”

Kurapika gives her a small grin and a chuckle, “I’ll remember that when my days are particularly trying.”

She pats his shoulder gently, stepping back and nodding her head to his response. “Please do. You have my number, call me if you ever want to meet up sometime. After this gig is over, I’m heading home to perform in recitals, I’ll be happy to host you then.”

“Thank you, Melody,” he tells her, yet even in his heart he knew he probably won’t, he wondered if Melody could hear that too. “Goodbye. Safe travels.”

“Be safe, Kurapika,” Melody tells him in a serious tone, and he only gave her a single nod of his head before he left.

When Melody told him his life was only beginning, he thought she didn’t know the half of it or any of it at all. The bags underneath his eyes or his lack of want to eat wasn’t something that would just go away after he got his father’s eyes. It was still hard to sleep without nightmares and food didn’t stay down on his worst days. But maybe she saw something beyond his heart, maybe even a vision, because his life was certainly shifting in some sort of way.

Kurapika over the cup noodles he was stirring around in its broth to steal glances at the man sitting across from him at the kitchen table. He seemed oblivious to his staring, too busy stuffing his face as if this was the best thing he’s eaten in a while. Leorio and he were very different, he was tall while Kurapika was average in height but felt incredibly small beside him. He was also talkative and energized while life made Kurapika reserved with not much to say if it didn’t give him connections to put his family back together. Leorio was… not like other people he’s met. Kurapika shivers at the thought that he figured him even okay. Even if he was on the run from the police, Kurapika was far from innocent on that aspect with many, many, criminal activities under his belt. At least Leorio’s was helping a cause.

“You should eat,” Kurapika blinks away from his thoughts and focuses on Leorio. 

“Hm?”

“You haven’t touched your food, you should eat.”

Kurapika looks down at his bowl, knowing this would be the time he’d retort, but they have been in each other’s presence for more than half-an-hour without quipped remarks. Kurapika was tired of fighting in all forms, so he forks up a generous amount and puts it in his mouth, then he’s downing it hungrily.

Leorio looks at him in surprise, Kurapika turns his body away in embarrassment, wiping his mouth. 

“Did you just move in?” Leorio says when they let the awkward silence tick on.

“What do you mean?”

Leorio gestures around himself, “it’s just, it’s pretty bare in here. Are you still unpacking?”

Kurapika slowly shakes his head, moving his blonde fringe out of his eyes, “Oh, no. For my job I traveled around a lot, this was only a temporary place. I plan to move out soon.”

Leorio makes a noise in understanding, “where do you plan to go from here, then?”

Kurapika sighs out and gives an unsure shrug, “I don’t really know. It’ll be too… unwise of me to stay here longer than I have. I couldn’t stay anywhere for long, so I’m sure I’ll just continue to drift along.”

Kurapika doesn’t know why he’s stupidly telling this guy all of this, it’s still fairly cryptic but he can’t trust himself not to just blurt out he has eyes of his massacred clan in jars. Maybe it’s because he’s kept this all in for so long. Now there’s a person in front of him who would listen to him say just about anything, and because it’s really all over he really needs someone to spill all his trauma and exhaustion on if they’re willing to hear it all for free. 

Melody would recommend he’d actually go and see a therapist if she knew all he’s been through, but he’s too scared for that. No one could understand how he was feeling, and he doesn’t want someone to try and pick apart his brain when she’s already picking apart his heart. He’s struggled for this long, his coping mechanisms may not be healthy, but he could struggle for much longer. Yet having someone to talk to, to cry to, to lean on, wouldn’t be so bad at all.

“I get that,” Leorio said, making Kurapika look up from picking at the bandaid on his elbow. “Having to move around a lot. I struggled a lot as a kid, so drifting only came naturally to me when I grew up.”

“But what about your clinic?” Kurapika asks.

“I travel to help more unfortunate neighborhoods. Since the cops are onto me, I’ll have to leave sooner than expected to Whale Island.”

Kurapika perks his head up, “Whale Island?”

Leorio nods his head, “you’ve heard of it?”

“Yes, but I’ve never actually been there,” he informs him, pulling his knees to his chest. “It’s like a hot tourist spot, a lot of people I worked with have been there.”

Leorio sits up in his chair, smiling wider and raising his arms, “you should come with me!”

Kurapika looks at him like he grew two heads, “what?”

“Seriously! You plan on moving out of here anyway, you can be my travel buddy!” Leorio presses, getting more energized the more he explains himself.

Kurapika scoffs at his proposal, “We just met! How can I be sure you won’t kill me and dump my body somewhere?”

“Oh, come on! We spent more than enough time together to be sure either of us isn’t serial killers,” Leorio points out, Kurapika would tell him to second guess that one severely. “Think about it, I plan to leave back to my clinic to get what I need tonight and waste no time getting out of here. Everyone should see Whale Island at least once in their life.”

Kurapika gazes at him hard, trying to find a fault within him, but there is none. He’s sitting there, grinning at him with his arms crossed over his chest, like he knows Kurapika will say yes. After a little hesitance, Kurapika gazes down at the tabletop.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“But I do,” Leorio persists, “why do you think this is such a bad idea? Except for the potential serial killer part.”

Kurapika reluctantly says, “there are still things I have to do…” 

He trails off and thinks about what Melody had told him, about how his life started the moment he walked out of that hotel room. He didn’t know what she could have meant then, as he wasn’t even sure if he’d be alive to steal his father’s eyes with high security around the place. Then there was Emperor Time, and his negligence made him a literal ticking time bomb, and he’s not sure how much life he had to live; his heart always hicked in his chest when his eyes found themselves opening each morning.

Kurapika didn’t even know where’d he bury his family, and they deserved to be at peace. He’d never bury them in this city that’s pawned them or any other city that treated them like toys. His journey has never led him to Whale Island, however….

“Okay,” Kurapika said to himself, for security, “okay,” he repeated himself for Leorio to hear. 

Leorio fist pumps the air, “all right!”

“But there’s something you need to know first before I can go anywhere with you,” Kurapika cuts into him celebrating, Leorio instantly calming down and his face fixes into a frown. “You can’t tell anyone else--in fact, let’s call it a secret for a secret. I tell you this, you tell me something you told no one else, and we take what we know to the grave.” Kurapika can feel his chains wanting to wrap around his knuckles, as they’re used to sealing death deals. But he keeps them down, because this a deal not made of nen and consequences, this one’s made of a risk at the human trust. Kurapika raises his pinkie finger towards Leorio, who seems stunned that Kurapika could even do something as juvenile as a pinkie promise.

Leorio doesn’t even hesitate to connect their pinkie fingers when it registers to him, giving a stern nod to seal the deal. “It’s a promise.”

So Kurapika tells him everything. 


	4. Words So True

Leorio doesn’t know what to say when Kurapika finishes his story, there was so much to grasp onto and pick apart, Kurapika didn’t even give him time to chew on it as he went from one origin story to the next. It was as if he was given the review of a thriller story and he was expected to rate it. Kurapika sat still in his chair, biting his lip and twirling a strand of his hair between his fingers nervously. Leorio could tell with the amount of silence he let pass by, Kurapika would regret this more and more. He needed to say something, anything at all--

“So last night your eyes really did turn red?” he manages to choke out idiotically. 

Kurapika scrunches his nose up at him, “Is that all you could say?”

“Well, yes,” Leorio replies, “because that would mean I was right!”

Leorio wants to hit himself, as he never thinks before he says things, which could be annoying in his own right. But after sitting through listening to something so traumatic and sad? His big mouth decides to strike then? Leorio braces for Kurapika to turn red in the cheeks and yell at him, but Leorio’s stomach flutters when Kurapika’s confused expression morphs into something soft. 

The next thing he knows an angelic form of laughter is surrounding him, reverberating in his ears from Kurapika’s mouth. A wide smile is on his face as he barks out in giggles, putting his head on the table, his shoulders jerking as he continues laughing. Leorio starts to laugh too, more out of nervousness than actually finding anything funny. Kurapika raises his head back up, his face flushed a light red, tucking his hair behind his ear. His earring dangle at the motion before he covered his mouth to stifle the rest of the giggles.

“I’m sorry,” he says when he’s calmed down, but his smile isn’t gone. “You truly are something else, Leorio.”

Leorio blinks, “Ah, no. I’m so sorry, Kurapika. I didn’t mean to make it seem I’m not taking you seriously!”

“No, thank you,” Kurapika says, “I don’t think I could take any more sympathy from people. It was surprising that’s all, not unpleasant.”

“Oh, well,” Leorio says, truly at a loss for words. “I’m glad I could make you laugh. But my correct assumption aside, I won’t tell anyone else what you told me. But---man, you’re incredibly strong, or maybe you’ve just built a tolerance to it all to even still laugh.”

  
  


Kurapika shakes his head, “I haven’t laughed in a really long time, it was a strange feeling to even have again. I only did what I had to do, I wasn’t brave or strong; I was scared throughout the entire journey, and life didn’t feel tangible. But now that I know it’s over? I’m terrified, Leorio. Because that means I have to be human.” 

Leorio listens to him be brutally honest to him, with shaking hands on the tabletop and a voice above a whisper. When the kids in his office were scared of getting shots or being in the environment, he’d hold their hands and squeeze them, saying it’ll be all okay. So, like an instinct, that’s what he does now. 

Kurapika’s head shoots up from where he’s gazing at the table when he feels Leorio’s warm, rough hands wrap around his own balled fists. Leorio gives them both one solid squeeze, nodding at Kurapika in determination. 

“It’ll be okay,” he tells him reassuringly, “I’ll help you. I’ll help you to find something else to put your time into; another reason to live. And I’ll help you bury your family, too. But you just need to have the will to continue on. Some days will suck, I won’t tell you life won’t be hard. But you won’t have to go through it alone,” he gives a toothy smile, “not with your travel buddy around!”

Kurapika’s eyes give a subtle glow of scarlet Leorio catches just briefly before he gently but swiftly pulls his hands away. He turns his body away from Leorio, rubbing at his eyes. “Geez, you really are cheesy. Are you going make us wear matching travel outfits while you’re at it?”

“Are you insinuating you aren’t opposed to the idea?”

“I am, I am very much opposed.”

“It was worth a shot.”

Kurapika smiles again, making Leorio feel like butterflies are swarming in his stomach. It’s small and evidently tired, but it’s genuine and a start. Kurapika clears his throat and gets all serious, however, before he can take in the moment. 

“Your turn.”

“For what--oh, right!” Leorio remembers that it was a secret for a secret. "Um, if you couldn't tell, I'm pretty transparent, so I can't think of anything I've held in from others. But if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them, no matter how private it is." 

Kurapika nods slowly as if he were expecting that from Leorio because he was just as predictable as he said he was. "You told me you were giving marijuana to your patients."

"That's right."

"But why did you start doing that?" he leans in in curiosity, "it helps with terminal illnesses yes. But it's extremely risky, especially as a doctor. So why do you do it despite that?" 

  
  


Leorio does have a secret, it would seem, after all. He runs his hands through his hair, letting out a deep sigh. “Uh, well, when I was a kid, I had a friend. His name was Pietro, and uh, he had lung disease. It was at a treatable stage, but we were so poor that his family couldn’t afford the medicine or the surgery that would have helped him incredibly. So in our early teens, he eventually passed away from it.” 

Kurapika nodded as he told his story, not interrupting him, but he was deeply invested. “So I vowed to become a doctor because of it, and I promised I jump through any hoops I’d have to to make an ill person even the tiniest bit better. I mean, people would think I’d be after the money, but I’m not. If anything the money would go to these people so they can get their needed medication and life-changing surgeries. Have you ever heard of Cheadle Yorkshire?”

Kurapika says, “I have, briefly. If you’re in my type of business, you’d inevitably know people with connections to her or her comrades. She’s a scientist and the head of her Hunter Division.”

Leorio nods at Kurapika, “that’s right, and she also mentored me. She and I have accurate statistics and data on how this drug helps those with terminal illnesses, like cancer or even epilepsy! Only certain regions have legalized it, but when brought up how the price of it would need to be lowered in low-income environments, it’s suddenly not worth the effort of investing in.”

Kurapika hums in the new-found knowledge, “this part of York New would be low-income.”

Leorio points at him, “that’s right! Who would think even the world of medicine could be as corrupt as politicians. But it isn’t entirely the fault of doctors or scientists, it’s the government. It’s not fair to those people who they leave in the dark, so lately I get the drug from the richer parts of cities, as going through Cheadle is difficult right now because she’s busy traveling, then I treat patients with it from low-income places.” 

Kurapika runs his finger over his lip, moving it slightly to speak, “I guess because you’re going through first parties directly, it’s causing suspicion.”

Leorio sulks, “exactly, you catch on quick. It’s a foolish method, I know--”

“I think it’s selfless, actually,” Kurapika interjects, “yes, also foolish, but mostly selfless. Until Cheadle is available again, you have no choice but to go through first parties. How have you been erasing your footprint?”

Leorio rubs his neck sheepishly at Kurapika’s brief compliment towards him, “Oh, thanks. Well, I usually let my apprentice retrieve it from the sellers, but somehow, I’ve slipped up and they’ve connected her to my clinic. It’s not illegal for her to buy it, but it is illegal to be disrupted at my clinic because it’s criminalized in these parts.”

“Then there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“But it is because she’s been buying it in large quantities every other two weeks--so twice a month.”

“However, it could be going anywhere. She’s a nurse, right?”

“Yes, but the cops won’t see it that way, I’ve been making that excuse too. In order to deflect us and my patients, I’ll need to go to Whale Island and continue to work there for a couple of months to throw them off.”

“Luckily for you, this complex doesn’t have any security cameras, so they can’t say they saw you here,” Kurapika mutters. “Thank you for telling me, I now get a better understanding of all this. In return for helping me, I’ll be your travel apprentice.”

Leorio smiles, “thank you, Kurapika.”

“And you know, when you talk about medicine and helping others, your eyes get as bright as mine,” he says softly, attempting to be subtle in his praise to Leorio. 

Leorio opens his mouth, touching his face, “my eyes turn red?!”

“Shut up! You know what I meant, gosh, you’re irritable. Forget what I said!”

“No way, that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me, say it again!”

Leorio is quieted with a kick to the shin underneath the table. 

  * \- - 



Kurapika puts his hands behind his back and stares up at the jars of eyes in front of them. The door felt especially heavy when he opened it, Leorio towering over him from behind, patiently waiting for Kurapika to show him a part of himself he has shown or told no one else. But now Leorio was beside him, after observing the jars from his place, he inches closer to the self, gingerly moving his stare from jar to another. Initially, Kurapika thought he would be grossed out or afraid of the eyes, but then it comes as no surprise that he’s fascinated by it as he’s probably seen far worse in his career than decapitated eyes. 

“Woah,” he says when he’s done looking at the glowing pairs of eyes. Kurapika notices he doesn’t move to pick up a jar, and he’s quietly grateful for that. It was already a big step trusting him, letting Leorio hold his clan would take more time. 

“Do you have any more questions?” Kurapika asked, tilting his head.

“Do you have any idea how you’ll transport the jars to Whale Island?” Leorio replies, returning back to him. 

Kurapika bites his lip, “Obviously we can’t take a plane. Maybe a train… but I’m unsure how tight security is…”

Leorio claps his hands together, “we can take your family to Whale Island by ship!” 

Kurapika blinks up at him calling the eyes his family, his face grew warm at the fact Leorio wasn’t treating them as if they were simple objects. He doesn’t why he keeps getting flustered over the bare minimum when it comes to him. 

“Will they check what we bring aboard?” Kurapika was rightfully nervous, one screwup on their journey to Whale Island and he’d lose his family again, and put Leorio in danger. 

Leorio puts on a thinking expression, “have you taken the Hunter Exam?”

Kurapika nods, “I have. Why?”

“I figured. You couldn’t have been able to do all this so stealthy, otherwise. So you use nen and all its counterparts?”

Kurapika gives another nod, Leorio folds his arms over his chest. “I took the Hunter Exam, too. Although my nen is no doubt amateur to yours, every nen user knows how to use Gyo to some degree. With Gyo you can conceal the aura of the eyes, as the Scarlet Eyes certainly carry some supernatural aura of their own. Let’s try it.”

Kurapika stares at him dumbfounded, unsure of why he couldn’t have thought of that. Shaking off the thought, he picks up one of the jars and puts it in a duffle bag Leorio offers him, zipping it up. 

“Transfer Gyo from you, and focus it in your hand holding the bag. If my hypothesis is correct, the eyes in the bag should feel the Gyo and absorb it.” Leorio steps back and closes his eyes, Kurapika assumes so he won’t see his aura. After a moment, Kurapika sees a transparent mist outline Leorio’s body. 

“Okay, I was right, the eyes definitely have an aura. Now try and conceal it.”

Kurapika, on the command, channels his own ability, gripping the duffle tight. Taking patterned breaths, he feels parts of nen become weaker as it creeps down to his right arm, which feels immensely strong with Gyo. Soon enough, he doesn’t feel Gyo at all, just a ghost of it somewhere else of his person.

“I can’t feel them anymore. In other words, we just passed the boating security check!”

  * \- 



They leave a little after midnight. Kurapika packs all of his traditional garments and leaves the suits and dress shoes he no longer has to wear, as that kind of life to dress like that will be shortly behind him. With a little help from Leorio, he manages to get all the jars into two suitcases and he uses Gyo one more time to be on the safe side. When he’s all done getting what he deems important, he takes up his car keys and with one last solemn look behind him, Kurapika shuts the door for a final time. 

They take Kurapika’s car down to the clinic, Leorio gets out to go retrieve his briefcase then tell Maria a temporary goodbye. Kurapika waits fidgety in the driver’s seat, his paranoia at peace when Leorio jogs back to the Jeep after barely a fifteen minutes wait. Leorio then gives him instructions to his own apartment, declining his offer to go inside while he packed. Kurapika’s wait was a little longer then, but he distracted himself with the low hum of the radio and his fingers tapping along to the beat on the steering wheel. 

After Leorio puts his suitcase of necessities into the trunk, Kurapika drives to the boating port at the edge of York New. It’s a lengthy drive and all the while Kurapika can’t believe that’s he’s actually doing this. If the right him now told the him from last year that he’d finally have all of his family back and jumped at the chance to go to Whale Island with the most oddly genuine stranger he’s ever met, he’d snort at him. And if he said that Melody told him he had a life to start, he’d laugh until his belly hurt. 

Leorio and he talks aimlessly, it helps the jitters that just won’t calm down. Kurapika’s watched the sunrise a bunch of times; patrolling a hotel room or dragging himself from a battlefield, the raising sun lighting his path to where he came from. However, this time he’s actually able to watch the sun touch the blue sky, and he’s not in any sort of internal or external pain. There’s someone beside him, watching along, too. And for once in his life since his clan, doesn’t feel alone. 

  * -



Leorio squeezes Kurapika’s shoulder, standing close behind him. He can feel him shaking and he has since they unloaded the car and rolled their luggage down the port and to the boat, where two people were waiting to store their bags safely away. Kurapika doesn’t shrug his touch away and so he leaves it there, hoping his confidence emits to Kurapika in some sort of away.

A woman takes their first piece of luggage which is Leorio’s, and he gives the nod that she can hand it to her partner to store in the luggage department. They both know she’s searching for a suspicious or dark aura. 

“Would you like to store your backpack, sir?” she asks Kurapika and he shakes his head, so she gives it back to him. Kurapika rolls both suitcases towards the woman, Leorio feels relief that Kurapika thought to use Gyo on his aura, even though that’s a bit more straining in energy, but Leorio will doubt that Kurapika would do something he couldn’t handle. It’s a tense moment as she picks up each suitcase, weighing them then writing it down, searching for aura. 

When her pen stops, she looks up at them with a kind smile. “Each suitcase is appropriate weight to store in your room, would you like to?”

“Yes, please,” Leorio speaks up for them, she rolls the luggage back, checking Leorio’s briefcase next.

“Sir, can you supply me a Hunter’s License or valid Medical Identification of any kind for what’s in your briefcase?” she inquires, Kurapika going rigid under his touch, but his Gyo never wavers. She didn’t even open the briefcase but knew what was in it, Leorio has encountered many like her, but Kurapika must’ve underestimated her abilities slightly. Quickly, he takes out his wallet and supplies his Hunter License. She facts checks it and hands it over, before stepping away. 

“Thank you. May you both have a wonderful time on Whale Island!”

Leorio and Kurapika gives thanks in reply, Kurapika wasting no time to grab the handles of the suitcases and roll them onto the ship and weave around the crowd, on the way to their room. When they make it to the door of their room, Kurapika clumsily trips over nothing and falls to his knees. 

“Kurapika,” Leorio exclaims, kneeling beside him, watching him clutch his head. “Kurapika, are you okay?”

Kurapika grunts in response, “I’m fine. I think I gave myself a headache, is all,” he winces somewhat Leorio guesses is the pounding in his head from the pain. Concealing his nen and thirty-six pairs of eyes would prove to be exhausting with the exertion of energy through consumption. Kurapika takes his hand and pulls himself back up, still cradling his head, his eyes now a subtle hue of red. 

Before they can draw attention to themselves, Leorio swipes their card, opening their room, and gently ushers Kurapika inside. Kurapika sits down on one of the beds, Leorio storing the luggage they took with them. 

“It was also maybe the fact you drove for four hours straight with no rest. You should lay down, we can get something to eat when you’re feeling better,” Leorio tells him, sitting down next to him, his hand automatically planting itself on Kurapika’s shoulder. 

Kurapika shakes his head, “this actually happened all the time if I didn’t use my nen at full potential. I don’t need to sleep, it will usually go away on its own. Food actually helps.”

Leorio stands up, “Then let’s go eat, hm?” 

He reaches his arm out to Kurapika. Kurapika blinks away some haziness he must be feeling, his eyes back to their natural brown. He smiles up at him, taking Leorio’s hand to pull himself up, dusting off imaginary dirt on his dark blue and yellow tunic. 

“Let’s go,” Kurapika responds, so Leorio leads the way out of their room. 

  * \- 



Because Leorio is tall, he manages to see over the group of people crowding around them to see over the boat. Kurapika falters a little behind him, allowing two kids with white and green hair to get a better viewing spot of them closing up on Whale Island. Kurapika was just content to watch them be happy and chatter about all the things they’d do on their trip until Leorio’s hand wrapped around his wrist, pulling him awfully close to his side. 

Kurapika’s cheeks blushed over as Leorio’s arm hugged his waist to keep him from swaying in the crowd of people. He’s certain Leorio isn’t paying attention to his expression as he’s too busy pointing at the island very much shaped like a whale. 

“There it is, Kurapika,” Leorio muses, his voice thick with excitement. “Whale Island!”

Kurapika gazed across the ocean at the land, his mouth involuntarily smiling at it no matter how much he told himself getting happy about this was trivial and childish. But he couldn’t help himself, placing his arms over the boat to feel the fresh air as it bypassed them.

“It’s so much stranger-looking than it seems on TV and magazines,” Kurapika says, earning a bark of laughter from Leorio. 

“And _I_ say the darndest things?” Leorio jokes, making Kurapika roll his eyes. “This is your new start, Kurapika. It may look strange now but you won’t even remember a time where it didn’t exist in your life soon enough.”

It’ll actually take them another fifteen minutes to reach the Island dock, and as people trickle away to prepare their things to depart from the ship, they stay there. There goes someone else telling Kurapika about what's a part of his future, but this time it’s not so far fetched. 

Kurapika’s curious, maybe a little excited, to learn of how true Leorio’s words are to him. 

  
  



	5. into the new world

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhh sorry for the long wait! it's here now but I have a few things to say-
> 
> 1\. i was intending on making this the last chapter but i got stuck on the last half of the chapter, and i didn't want to make you guys wait another week for my brain cells to comply with me. so this is the second to last chapter! the next chapter will be the last chapter!
> 
> 2\. again, with my brain cells not complying, i'd like to note gon and killua are still fourteen in this fic, and their journeys don't coincide with leopika's (like taking the hunter exam together, greed island, etc) and you'll see that. however, leopika are in their middle-to-late twenties.
> 
> that was all, enjoy!

“Mito!”

“Who is that--Leorio? Leorio!”

Kurapika watched confused when Leorio leaves his side, running ahead despite the heavy suitcase of eyes he was totting with him and swept the woman into a hug. When they got off the ship, Kurapika was glad. He was starting to feel a bit ill from the motion he had to endure for two days and a half. The breeze that greeted them on the dock was incredibly refreshing, and the smell of salt-water was more strangely more intense than when they were out on the sea, which wasn’t unwanted. Leorio chatted to him lively on the way to their destination, Kurapika wasn’t sure where that was but Leorio told him assuredly not to worry. Now Kurapika has a hench the lady up ahead has something to do with their living arrangements. 

Once Kurapika catches up by picking up his pace, Leorio is talking animatedly to Mito, who gazes from his active hand gestures to Kurapika’s form hiding cautiously behind Leorio’s. 

“Leorio, you’ve brought a friend?”

Leorio stops talking about the ride to Whale Island and smiles brightly, putting his arm around Kurapika’s shoulder who tenses shyly under his touch and Mito’s kind gaze. 

“Yep! This my travel buddy,” he announces proudly. Kurapika resists the urge to roll his eyes at the embarrassing title, opting to put out his hand to shake Mito’s.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, I am Kurapika. I hope 

I’m not intruding on you.”

Mito shakes her head, her smiles more pronounced and genuine, her hand soft in his grasp.

“Not at all! It’s always great to have new visitors to the Island, and any friend of Leorio’s is a friend of mine!” When they stop shaking hands she puts her hand over her mouth in shock, “Oh, where are my manners? I’m Mito Freecss, Leorio’s a relative of mine and often does random pop-ins, but this is his first one in a while!”

Leorio dismisses her statement with a wave, “yeah, well, I would’ve come more often if I wasn’t working to get my medical degree. You know that!”

“Hey, what can I say? I sure did miss your zealous attitude all the while! Acting like you weren’t itching to come here to see me, Gran, and Gon. Luckily you’ve brought Kurapika and Gon’s got a friend over so there’s more than enough of you to go around.”

Leorio looks around the yard, Kurapika noticed Mito was doing some gardening. “Where is Gon, anyway?”

Mito puts her finger up to a window in the home, “in his room with Killua, his friend. You know he just came back from a trip to Heaven’s Arena after getting his Hunter’s license,” she sighs fondly as they all squint up at the window as if they’d see the boy from there on the hill. “They grow up so fast, I can’t help but worry.”

Leorio takes his arm from around Kurapika’s shoulder, picking up the suitcase again. “Don’t worry, Mito! That’s why I’m around, to talk sense into him when he strays too far.”

Mito giggles in response to him, bending down to pick up her watering, “trust me, Leorio, if there’s one person that will always be there for Gon, I know it’s you. It’s hot out and you’ve boys had a long trip, get inside and greet Gran. I’ll be behind you in just a bit!”

  * \- 



Kurapika is surprised when he finds out that he’s seen Gon and his friend on the ship they just arrived in. If he thought Gon was a ball of energy then, climbing up the flag pole or taking miles per minute to his very attentive friend, he’s not sure what to make of him now. 

“Leorio!” The green-haired boy shouts across the house, from the top of the staircase.

Gran was very sweet and when they entered the home, happy to see her great-nephew and giving them both big hugs despite not knowing a fidgeting Kurapika from a can of paint. Afterward, she wasted no time announcing their presence in the home. 

“Gon!” Leorio shouted back as equally as loud, and Kurapika could definitely see their similarities within that small notion. 

Leorio carefully put down the suitcase in his hand, running to Gon with few stumbles, and Gon completely ignored the stairs and their purpose and down from the third step and right into Leorio’s arm, who was more than ready to catch him. Kurapika watched on with a small smile as Leorio spun a smiling Gon in the air, Leorio still crying about how much he missed him. As they greet each other in a way that made it seem like they’ve been apart for years, Kurapika meets the eyes of the white-haired kid, Killua. Killua takes one hand out of the pockets of his shorts to wave at him, Kurapika waving back shyly as if both of them were confused on what to do about their over-excited counter-parts. 

“Can you boys stop acting like it’s the near end of the world whenever you see each other?” Mito says when she shortly enters the house after them, dusting her hands on her apron. “You’re going to scare our guest away!”

Leorio laughs sheepishly, finally setting the boy on his feet, giving his hair a ruffle for good measure. “Ah, we wouldn’t want that, now would we Gon?”   
  


Gon shakes his head with an adorable spurt of a cheeky laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. “I guess not. But Killua’s my best friend, nothing I do can scare him away!” he explains, turning on his feet to stick his tongue out at Killua who deemed it safe enough to travel down the stairs. When he notices, he sticks his tongue out back, making Gon snicker mischievously at being caught. 

“I’m also fairly sure Kurapika won’t leave me behind either, isn’t that right?” Leorio says, whipping around to wink at him. Kurapika is not happy with the flutter his stomach made in response to that. 

“I don’t know,” Kurapika started with an eye roll, “but I won’t recommend you test it,” he narrows his eyes and smirks. Gon starts to laugh, Killua smiles, and Leorio begins to bicker about them respecting their elders. Kurapika hasn’t felt so instantly comfortable in a place in a long while like he is now. 

  * \- 



After a filling early dinner with lots of delicious food, Kurapika and Leorio join the two boys on their adventure into the forest. They tried to keep up with them as best as they could, but they weren’t teenagers anymore with copious amounts of energy like those two who seemed to run, jump, and climb things for hours on end. Eventually, they slow down their pace and let them go off on their own in the forest, rest assured that Gon knew it like the back of his hand to get them out safely. Instead, Leorio walks them towards the stream of water coming from the waterfall, leading to the beach some more miles ahead. They sit amongst the rocks and watch the sun begin to set along the horizon, scattering the sky in a transparent pinkish-purple. 

“So,” Kurapika said, facing his body towards Leorio who was startled at being addressed. “How does it feel to be back?”

Leorio smiles at the question, leaning his hands back on the ground behind him. “It feels good! It’s been a while since I’ve been back, and now I can also help people.”

Kurapika nods in heed, tilting his head, “you know, you and Gon look alike. You could be siblings.”

Leorio laughs out loud, running his hands through his hair. “We get that all the time. But, nah, we’re nothing more than distant cousins. It’s just the strong genes on Gran’s side of the family, it runs mad through the men.”

Kurapika laughs too, finding it funny, pushing his blonde hair out of his eyes, “does Gon just live with his aunt and grandma?”

Leorio shifts at the question, “pretty much. His mom died when he was around two, and his dad isn’t around much, if at all. He’s hiding from Gon, and giving him these outrageous expectations of what he’s supposed to be in life, hoping then his old man will come out. We all do what we can to support Gon, but his mind’s set,” he shrugs, “so what more can we do than be there for him, you now?”

Kurapika pulls his knees to his chest, the sky turning a dark blue around them, the day coming to an end. “It reminds me of my clan. There’s this saying that it takes a village to raise a child, and I think that’s true. Kids can make your head hurt, and they can make you worry. I know I made my parents worry,” he laughs lightly. “But everyone in the clan was there for me and all the other children. Most of the time, it works wonders to just--be there.” 

While he talks, Leorio’s eyes trace his face, from his jawline, to his lips, and his eyes. He looks so small, so vulnerable when his attitude for the past half week they’ve spent together made it seem so much more brooding than he really is. He wasn’t ever sure if he could crack through that surface, or if it was even a surface at all. But here he is, curled up into himself and initiating conversation. He likes when Kurapika displays his strength and asserts his independence, but he also likes this Kurapika. He likes the Kurapika that’s able to laugh and joke and be so lax around him. Leorio finds himself leaning forward, closing space in between them. Kurapika notices this, his eyes fluttering from where they looked down at the rocks to his own, a light flush on his face from the weather getting colder the more the sun went down and they stayed by the ocean. 

“Tell me about your clan,” Leorio mutters to him, his eyes never leaving his. He wants to know. He wants to know everything there is about the blonde in front of him. 

Kurapika raises his hand to twirl a strand of his hair between his fingers; Leorio had learned this is his nervous tick, he can't control when his mind tells him it’s cute. “Um, well, I lived with my mother, father, and my grandmother. My grandpa died before I was born, so I didn’t know him.”

“Mm, and what else?”

“We were a tight-knit community. There were only about forty people in the clan. We didn’t have things like modern technology or trendy clothes, yet we didn’t need any of that to be happy. We had a lot of festivals and traditions.”

“And what else?”

“I won’t say it was easy growing up in the village. Sometimes it felt suffocating, and I didn’t realize how closed-off or different we were until I went into the city to venture out for myself. My mother always told me I wouldn’t understand things until I was older. And she was right, because now here I am, and I wish I could have protected them like they protected me.”

Leorio reaches out without thinking, tilting Kurapika’s head up when he lowered it like he was shielding him from seeing his sadness. Kurapika didn’t shove him away, allowing Leorio to run his thumbs under his eyes, wiping away prickling tears from his soft features. 

“Kurapika,” Leorio slowly says when the quiet passes between them just gazing at each other with words unsaid. “Kurapika, I--”

“Kurapika, Leorio,” Gon’s voice rings out to them, hearing two pairs of feet rushing towards them. Kurapika acted fast, pushing him away so hard Leorio fell all the way over the rock he was perching on and onto the dirt beneath them.

Kurapika shot up, covering his hand with his mouth, looking down at a groaning Leorio. “Ah, Leorio! I’m so sorry!”

“‘M fine,” he manages to grit through his teeth, rubbing where he fell on his back. Gon and Killua glanced at the scene before them when they got there, which was Leorio in slight pain with Kurapika fretting over him. 

“Are you guys ready to go back?” Killua asked after Kurapika finally thought to help the poor doctor to his feet. Kurapika let Leorio put his weight in him, and they sheepishly avoided eye contact despite the awkward position. 

“Yep!” Leorio answers for the both of them, Gon and Killua clearing the way so Kurapika could properly help the limping Leorio down the hill. They both tried to ignore the teenagers’ perceiving stares taped on their backs. Kurapika was surely hoping they didn’t see what happened before Leorio’s tumble. 

  * -



Kurapika gasped for air like he was under pounds and pounds of water, in the deepest part of the ocean where nothing comes back up. When he jumped up from his lying position, his eyes were greeted with mild darkness before he registered his surroundings by the window behind him and the framed photos on the wall; he was in Mito’s guest bedroom. Kurapika’s hand trembled when they found place in his hair, his hair pressed to his face and it dropped to the tips of his shoulder, evidently damped. 

It was just a dream. It was always just a dream.

Kurapika tried to slow his panting, but he felt on the rise of a panic attack. When he had nightmares, which was more frequent than he liked, he’d get up from his bed and occupy his time with something else. But he was in a house he didn’t know his way around in the dark and he didn’t want to disturb the others by turning on the lights. So he just sat there on the bed, trying to catch breaths that didn’t seem like they were coming back to him anytime soon. 

“Kurapika, are you okay?”

Kurapika startled at Leorio’s voice coming from the other side of the bed. Kurapika looked down at Leorio, who was still lying on his back tucked under a blanket on the air mattress Mito gave them. Leorio refused to take the bed and that was the alternative, but he was obviously too tall for it, his feet falling off the end of it and he couldn’t roll over without completely falling off. Kurapika caught sight of the bandaid on his cheek from where he scratched it tumbling off the rocks, even now Kurapika still felt immensely guilty for that. 

“I’m fine, go back to sleep,” he reassured the doctor, trying to smile reassuringly even if it was dark.

Leorio, unconvinced, sat up and looked at him. “You’re breathing really hard, I can tell. Did you have a nightmare?”

Kurapika waves away his concern, fussing with his blanket, fixing to lay back down and curl into himself, he’d just stare into the dark in peace. “Something like that, it’s fine though. Go back to sleep.”

Kurapika pulls the blanket over his body and turns on his side, yet he was utterly afraid to close his eyes for more than a wink. It’s quiet for a moment, until Leorio says, “Kurapika, you screamed in your sleep.”

Kurapika’s body tenses up at that, and he’s left wordless with what to say, surely a ‘go back to sleep’ won’t cut it this time. It’s not the first time he’s heard this. Melody was the first to point it out to him--that he talks and shouts in his sleep. With Melody, it was a thing brought up, briefly talked about, and with some melatonin, never happened again. But with Leorio, it was very different. Kurapika found himself caring about what Leorio thought of him and because he did, his face instantly felt hot and embarrassment flushed over him that it made him forget about why he was even awake right now.

“I’m sorry,” Kurapika squeaks up and he hates that even more. “If I woke you up, I’m sorry.”

Kurapika digs his face into the comforter some more, wishing Leorio would do him the courtesy of saying nothing at all as that would hurt less than a fake reassurance. While he’s thinking of ways to get himself out of this hole of shame, the empty side of the bed dips under weight and a hand gingerly touches his forehead, Kurapika’s eyes trail up to Leorio’s looking down at him with concern. 

“You’re hot,” Leorio says quietly, getting up to open the windows to let in the breeze and flicking on a floor lamp before returning, offering him the convenient glass of water on the nightstand. Kurapika tentatively sits up and chugs the drink, meekly telling Leorio thank you before handing back the cup. 

Leorio stays silent for a moment, allowing Kurapika to find a steady breathing pace, the panic steadily going away. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Kurapika instantly shakes his head, “I… I’d rather not,”

“That’s okay,” Leorio nods his head with understanding, leaning over the bed to flick off the light, yet without much thought, Kurapika grabs his wrist before he can touch it. Leorio looks at him, puzzled at the gesture. 

“Um,” Kurapika finds himself muttering, finding the strength to look at Leorio. “Don’t turn off the light, please.”

“Okay, I won’t,” Leorio responded, but Kurapika still doesn’t let him go. 

“And--the air mattress is too small for you. There’s enough space up here, so please sleep in the bed.”

Leorio nods slowly as if registering what he’s saying. “Well, since you said  _ please _ ,” Leorio sided teasingly, which Kurapika sucked his teeth at, but he finally let go. 

They position themselves away from each other, their back inches away from pressing together. Kurapika tried to make himself as small as possible, and he was too distracted by not attempting to touch Leorio; he has to remind himself not to close his eyes. When Leorio went to sleep, he’d get up and go into the bathroom and stay there until the sun came up. That sounded neat and plausible in his head. 

“Kurapika,” Leorio whispers, and it wasn’t a question to question Kurapika’s consciousness. 

“Yes, Leorio?” he replies because he knows he can’t hide the fact he’s not the slightest asleep. 

Leorio tosses in the bed, his body now facing Kurapika’s. “I know it would seem stupid to say, and I’d understand if you feel uncomfortable about this, since we haven’t even known each other two weeks. But Kurapika--I--I think I like--”

Kurapika tosses himself over so he’s facing Leorio, surprising him with the sudden twist. “Don’t say it.” 

“What? You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”

“Yes, I do. You’re going to say that you like me, and I’d advise you not to.”

Leorio laughs, but there’s no humor in it, “is this rejection?”

Kurapika dances his eyes along Leorio’s face, watching it lose hope in real-time. “No, not at all,” then there’s the shock spreading across his face. “But do not like me, I’m not exactly special, you’ll end up being disappointed with me.”

Then there’s the confusion. “You can’t tell me that, only I get to decide how to feel about you until you give me a reason not to otherwise, and--”

Kurapika props himself up on his elbows, looking at him with narrowed eyes. “I’m a mess, Leorio. I don’t know how to function in society anymore. I can’t sleep without nightmares, I can’t properly communicate with others, I have human eyes worth billions of jenny, and God knows how much time I have left to live with how much I abused Emperor Time!”

Leorio looks up at him with a gaped mouth, blinking unsurely. “What do you mean ‘how much time?’ And what’s Emperor Time?”

Kurapika’s voice falters on his tongue, Leorio’s eyes following his movement as he sinks back into the bed. He curled his knees to his chest and his hands laid beside Leorio’s in a weak fist. Like a second nature he’s known for many hard years, he conjured up his chains around his right fist. They rattle and clink together, as if happy to be wrapped around him once more. Leorio watches, fascinated by the metal, probably thinking it was heavy. Kurapika would agree, they could be heavy. Like thousands of weight dragging alongside, depending on what he did. But today they were as light as paper. Tentatively, he raises a finger to point at one of the chains.

“I’m a conjurer, and I use these chains. Each chain does a certain thing; this one,” he points to his thumb, “is Holy Chain, it can heal. The one on my middle finger is Chain Jail, it restrains the target and is nearly impossible to get out of, especially without nen abilities. However, I could only use it on members of the Phantom Troupe.”

Leorio gazes at him silently, speaking softly, “you’ve told me about them, but I guess it won’t be of any use anymore, will it?”

“Not anymore,” Kurapika confirms, moving on to his ring finger, touching the metal ball at the end, making it swing back and forth, “this is Dowsing Ball, it can track and locate whatever I want to find. My little finger is Judgement Chain, I use it to set conditions, and if they aren’t followed, well, someone will die. And on my pointer finger is Steal Chain, it forces those stabbed with it into a state of Zetsu.” He balls his fist up again and puts it by his head, “all together, along with my eyes, they make Emperor Time, which makes me a Specialist. If I use Emperor Time, I drain my lifespan.”

Leorio’s face falls before he could explain it all the way, and it makes Kurapika’s stomach fall into his stomach. Kurapika bites his lip out of nervousness of how Leorio will react, but when he stays still, Kurapika continues to talk out of fear of what Leorio would say to this confession. 

“I used Emperor Time so much that I’ve lost count of how many hours I lost consciousness with it still activated, If anything, I have more than twelve-years off of my lifespan,” his voice starts to break without his permission, and he quickly uses his left hand to wipe his eyes of tears before they threaten to fall. “Leorio, any day I could simply not wake up. Or I can suddenly have declining health. The last thing I want is to leave this Earth with more regrets than I already have. But I want those regrets to be mine alone, my own burden to carry. Trust me, Leorio, you don’t want me to be a burden, because I come with so much baggage.” Kurapika tries to laugh it off with the last statement, but tears are bubbling up in his throat which warrants the exact opposite. 

Kurapika closes his eyes although he’s been avoiding doing so for the past hour, he doesn’t want to see the sadness on Leorio’s face anymore. He doesn’t want to cry over this when his body couldn’t even feel the bit of remorse for the lives he took. He won’t cry for himself now or think about the possibility that twelve years really wasn’t a lot of time taken from him if he originally could have lived to see the age of ninety. He shortly wishes he never met Leorio, or what-ifs wouldn’t be a problem right now. He was fine with being alone and dying alone, and now he had options. 

Leorio’s hand wraps around his right hand, and it’s warm and firm. Kurapika opens his eyes, not resisting when Leorio brings his hand with his chains to his mouth. Softly, he kisses each of his chains, they rattle with each shift to get to the next one. 

“Is that all?” Leorio whispers to him, making Kurapika shiver when he places his hand on his cheek making contact with the stubble on Leorio’s jawline. “That wasn’t enough reason for me not to like you. I still want to be with you, no matter how much time I have with you. I just want you Kurapika, all of you. That is, if you want me, too?”

  
  


Kurapika eyes widen at the confession, and it fills his stomach with butterflies. Each of his fingers tingles from the lingering kisses. Kurapika had never liked someone, not in the romantic sense, at least. He always kept to himself and dismissed anyone who showed a bit of interest in him. Back then, he didn’t have the desire or the time to be with someone. He wasn’t going to risk counting his life on the promise to return to a person. But now, looking at Leorio in the dim yellow glow of the floor lamp, he’s feeling things he swore off. He often thought no one could love him, and if they said they did, it would be coming from a little kid he did right by somehow. Yet it was Leorio, although he didn’t say it in words, Kurapika’s certain he can feel it. Kurapika scrubs at his eyes, laughing at how Leorio could always make him feel better and not as crazy as he thinks himself out to be. Kurapika could tell him the world was burning and Leorio would ask him if that was all. Because to Leorio, none that really mattered, because he’d still care for him. And frankly, Kurapika could get used to the reassurances and not feeling, but knowing everything would be okay with Leorio there.

Kurapika rubs his thumb over Leorio’s cheek, hesitant at first before shyly pressing his forehead onto Leorio’s chest and folding himself small against him.

Muttered into the doctor’s tee-shirt, he says, “I do.”

  * -



When Kurapika woke up in the morning, he felt the most well-rested than he had in a long time. Leorio’s warmth still surrounded him like a solace even if his side of the bed was empty. Kurapika can fairly remember Leorio whispering to him about starting work but for him to stay back and sleep, so he sleepily listened, but he’s sure the kiss to his forehead was a dream. When he woke up, he wanted to busy himself with something to do; Gran was out shopping while Gon and Killua were busy talking about this rare game and ways to acquire it up in Gon’s bedroom, so that left Kurapika to help Mito garden outside. 

Mito grew flowers mostly; Plumeria, Hibiscus, and Naupaka’s. She assigned him to dig up weeds and planting potted plants into the dirt neatly along the house path while watered and dug new holes to plant more seeds. 

“Did the boys show you around Whale Island yet?” She said after she finished humming a joyful tune. 

Kurapika wiped the sweat from off her forehead, silently wishing he brought lighter long-sleeve attire before going back to his duty of digging the weeds from out of the ground. 

“Uh, they showed me the waterfall in the forest and Gon’s favorite fishing spot,” Kurapika replied brightly, sitting back on his knees to face Mito when she looked back at him.

“Leave it to Gon and Leorio to be lazy tour guides. I can show you around after we finish gardening!” Mito offered Kurapika brightly, clapping her gloved hands together with pleasure. “Is there anywhere you would like to go?”

Kurapika thought about it with a pondering pause, about to decline her offer as he didn’t particularly need anything--perhaps some lighter clothing--when he remembered the two suitcases of eyes underneath his guest bed that needed a proper funeral.

“Actually, yes,” he tells her in what he hopes is not a too-serious tone, “do you have a chapel of sorts on Whale Island? 


	6. One, Two, Three, GO!

  
  


Leorio has only been to one funeral, and it was Pietro's. It was a sorrowful day, the sun wasn't shining, and it would rain, then stop, before picking back up again. They were catholic, so it was a religious affair; gospel songs played on a piano while women from the small choir belted out hymns. No one really cried, at least not so openly, Pietro's parents would just dab their tears with a tissue and continue in with their eulogy. 

Leorio sat with his own parents in one of the front pews, and he dazedly watched it all happen. It was an open-casket, but Leorio couldn't bring himself to see him that way, he knew Pietro wouldn't want him to. It was only when they got home did Leorio allow himself to cry for his friend. 

What makes the Kurta Clan funeral drastically different from then was that it was bright outside. The sky was the brightest he'd ever seen. The birds chirped joyfully out the windows of the chapel, and it was cool inside. Kurapika tentatively sat next to Leorio on the front pew after he carefully took out each jar of eyes, setting them side by side on a wooden communion table in front of the church. There was no piano, no church choir, and no muffled tears. It was just them and the spirits of Kurapika's clan no doubt swarming around the church from how strong the aura was at the moment. 

Kurapika's fingers slide into his own like a puzzle, gripping him in a strangled attempt at being strong but greatly faltering. Leorio put his free hand over his, rubbing his thumb smoothly over the back of Kurapika's hand as they gazed ahead at the picture set before them.

"I never believed in God," Kurapika's voice is faint like he lost it without even talking. 

"Hm," Leorio hums to show he's listening.

"I thought that since life was unfair to me, then how could He exist? What creature would wipe out a whole generation and then leave a nine-year-old all alone to suffer for it? My mother would always hum… this song, even though we had our own traditional Kurtan songs to sing. But she sang it anyway, saying it gave her a secretive hope." 

Kurapika leans his head on Leorio's shoulder, Leorio caressing his cheek, catching a few fallen tears that rolled down his soft skin. 

"Do you remember the song?" he whispers into his hair, he feels Kurapika nod under his weight. 

The quiet dragged on for a few more minutes until Kurapika's voice sliced through it, choked and strained, but soft and sturdy all the same. Leorio knew the song the instant Kurapika hummed it's rhythm, his hold on his hand shaking, starting to lose its grip. Leorio held on more sternly to his grasp when it went limb. His voice now above a whisper, the song dying on Kurapika's tongue after a failed attempt of getting through the second verse. 

  
  


  * \- 



  
  


Kurapika was hesitant at first when Mito asked him why he needed to go to the chapel. He was on the verge of telling her a rushed nevermind and changing the subject. Kurapika loathed talking about himself, his childhood, his past, or anything that didn’t involve what he was doing at the moment. It was often a stressful occurrence that made him feel overwhelming emotions and guilt for himself and he hated feeling sorry for himself just as much. It was only easy to confide in Leorio about all these things because Leorio made himself accessible to hearing about Kurapika. There was also the fact Leorio didn’t treat him like a sob story and he could trust him not to rat him out to auctioneers or the police. 

But Mito has never given him a reason to not trust her, however, it hadn’t even been two days since he met her. He wouldn’t dump his life story on her or feel compelled to tell anything personal about himself. However, he didn’t want to lie to her, as he didn’t see the need in lying if you didn’t gain from it, and even then he steered far from fables. So after a moment's quick thought, he figured to tell a somewhat-truth.

“I have a possession of a late family member’s that I’d like to hold a funeral for as well as a burial because I don’t have their physical being,” Kurapika decides to say, hoping his voice isn’t shifting to questionable. 

Mito didn’t seem to question his motives in a subtle expression, instead, she nodded in understanding and that was enough explanation for her. She took a necklace out of her blouse with a silver skeleton key on it, “actually, we only have one chapel. Great Gran majorly tends and cares for the chapel and the land around it. You’re fortunate; Great Gran makes it quite hard to gain access to the chapel apart from Sundays and Wednesdays. Here, I’ll show you where it is and I’ll let you borrow my spare key.”

The chapel was up on a hill all by itself, where the landscape dipped into the ocean and the sun shined on it best as there were very few trees to garner any shade from it. It wasn’t huge by any means, it was small and resembled a cozy home in a suburban neighborhood if it wasn’t for the cross planted in between the front windows as well as the wooden sign planted into the grass near the mailbox titled, ‘Whale Island Chapel’. 

The key Mito gave Kurapika opened every door in the chapel so it was easy to maneuver through it. After the short ceremony, Kurapika sat on his knees and clasped his hands, and attempted to pray. Leorio copied his pose and closed his eyes too. It was hard, and he wouldn’t say his prayer out loud in fear of embarrassment. As expected of himself, he gave up trying to talk to God after a minute or two of attempting to pray for himself and shifted to praying for his clan instead. He prayed for their peace and eternal well-being, he prayed for Leorio, the kids, and Mito and Great-Gran too; that they live long and be safe along their individual daily tasks. Kurapika’s not sure if God heard him if he existed, but Kurapika wasn’t remorseful enough to ask God to forgive him for the lives he took or ruined, as he liked to think the man upstairs would understand why he did it at all. When he’s sure he asked or acknowledged everything he could think of in that five-minute time slot, he neatly picked himself off of the ground. Leorio stayed positioned for a few seconds more than him, raising up with a helpful hand from Kurapika.

Then they started to place the jars of eyes into a large metal box. It was deep inside and the perfect place to store his clan. Leorio brought it the day Kurapika told him of his plans to hold a funeral, and after work, he came back home with it. Leorio was gentle in how he held the eyes, equally gentle when he placed them in the box, Kurapika taking notice of how ginger his actions were with each jar he picked up and stored like he knew he was holding parts of Kurapika. Together, they heaved the box out the backdoor of the chapel, sitting it on the steps. Kurapika took both the shovels leaning against the chapel walls and gave one to Leorio. The sun beating down on Kurapika as he jabbed the tool into the dirt of the flower bed, swinging the shovel to drop each scoop of dirt off into a pile to the side of him.

Eventually, after digging a hole deep enough, the two carried the box to it. Kurapika put a combination lock on the handle of the box that he carried in his satchel. He conjured up his chains, tightly wrapping his Judgement Chain around the lock. 

“This box is only to be opened by those who know the combination,” he announced sternly, channeling energy from his clan’s eyes to act as the dependent aura of a beating heart. “If this box is forcefully opened by bypassing the lock, the culprit will die immediately upon breaking this condition.”

Leorio tilted his body to gaze at what he was doing, “how will you know the condition was broken?”

“I will know because I can feel it. I set the condition with Judgement Chain and Judgment Chain is a part of me.” Kurapika explains, unleashing the box from his chains and they vanished from around his fist. With Leorio’s help, they push the box into the hole, where it settles like a puzzle into the ground. Kurapika gives it one last glimpse that Leorio patiently allows him. 

“Come on, let’s cover it back up,” Kurapika instructs and they waste no time getting to work on it. 

The sun sets around them just as Kurapika finishes neatly patting the dirt with his shovel. Leorio hangs back as Kurapika does some additional work over the ‘grave.’ He takes a packet of seeds out of his satchel and kneels onto the grass of the flower bed. He got the seeds from Mito when he asked for them and she didn’t question him, happy to indulge his want to plant flowers somewhere on Whale Island. He delicately poked holes into the dirt above the box with his fingers, dropping seeds into them before covering them back up. He opened a half-drunk bottle of water and poured it over each seed, planning to come back each day Great Gran lets him to see their progress. 

“Okay, we can go now,” Kurapika declares after stuffing the bottle and empty seed pack back into his bag. “Did we lock up the chapel? Thank you for your help and just… being here, it made things easier.” 

When Kurapika picks himself up and looks over at Leorio, he’s just staring at him with a frown. Kurapika fixes his face into an expression of confusion, unsure if he had done something wrong or to offend him. “What’s the matter?”

Leorio walked up to him, placing his hands on his shoulders. “Kurapika, I think you’ve been strong for long enough.”

Kurapika startles at the declaration, for the first time shrugging off his touch. He offered him a stifled scoff, about to walk past him to check the locks on the chapel. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Leorio only reaches for his arm, pulling him back enough that they're a couple of inches apart. “Kurapika, it’s over. The fighting, the fear, the hopelessness. It’s all over now and you’ve made it this far. It’s okay to show how you really feel now.”

“How I feel?” Kurapika said under his breath in a childish contemplation of searching for a meaning in it. “How do you know what I feel? Are you me?”

Leorio grits his teeth, his grip on his arm sliding up to his shoulders, holding him there in case he tried to free himself to avoid what he knew was revealing. “Don’t play stupid, Kurapika! You know what I mean. It’s okay to be human and honest with yourself. It’s okay to be sensitive and raw--it’s okay to cry--”

“No it’s not,” he quickly interjected. “It’s not okay to cry. Why should I cry now? That’s a foolish thing to do, I can’t even believe you suggested such a nonsensical thing to me. Do you think just because everything is done and all those years I’ve wasted getting to this moment will make me feel some kind of human sentiment? Or maybe I could sob about having to figure out what else to do with my life now that I’m somehow still walking and breathing and living? Leorio, you say the most idiotic things sometimes--”

Kurapika huffs out when Leorio gives him a sympathetic smile and moves his warm hands to his face, wiping away some wet stuff from his face. Was it raining?

“Then why are you crying?” Leorio softly asks him, and that he feels the hiccups coursing through his body sharply, jerking his shoulders up and down as he struggles to keep down any sounds of distress. “You don’t have to cry for yourself, Kurapika. It’s okay to cry about other people. Because they said something mean, or because they were hurt. And right now, it’s okay to cry because they died and you miss them. Allow yourself to cry, Pika.”

Strangely, that was all Kurapika needed to break down in tears into Leorio’s chest. Leorio wrapped his arms tight around him, swaying them gently side to side as he wailed the most disgusting sounds he’s ever heard from himself that he’ll think about at 3 AM someday. He’s so emotionally drained that he passes by Leorio calling him ‘Pika’ and even at that moment the nickname was a comfort. Kurapika grasped onto Leorio for dear life, most likely leaving scratch marks on his sweater. But he was too busy missing his family because they died. 

  * \- 



Kurapika’s hair was like silk through his fingers, Leorio thought as he ran a brush through his freshly blow-dry hair. Kurapika hummed from his perch on the stool at the kitchen table, contently letting Leorio have a shot at braiding his neck-length hair into a style he saw for short hair on the internet.

Leorio saw a change in Kurapika’s personality since the day they buried his family. Of course, for a few days, he was somber and allowed himself to feel all the negative emotions he locked away inside of himself. But two weeks have passed and Kurapika’s much more bright and excited about things. He laughs unapologetically loud and when Leorio’s busy filling out paperwork, he can hear Gon and Killua whine in protest to whatever prank Kurapika pulled on them before hearing Kurapika cackle in response while dashing down the hall. Kurapika’s eating a lot and sleeping well even though he still gets nightmares from time to time. He’s also taken up drinking herbal tea and gardening with Mito, he deems that it’s therapeutic and Leorio’s just happy he’s got something healthy to put his time into. 

As far as their relationship is going--it’s going. They cuddle a lot at night and hold hands when they go out to the shops--but they haven’t had their first kiss yet if you don’t count sleepy forehead kisses and Kurapika’s sloppy cheek kisses he plants on him before he runs away laughing at another successful sneak attack. 

While Leorio fumbles to make a good braid to the scalp, Gon and Killua bound into the kitchen, Gon holding out a flyer from the village to thrust into Kurapika’s face to read. 

“It’s an Independence Day festival! I go every year with Aunt Mito, but she’s always too busy selling stuff. Do you guys wanna go with Killua and me? It’s tonight!”

Kurapika leans forward to read the flyer and tilts his head up to look at Leorio. Leorio wants to suck his teeth when Kurapika’s movement makes him lose grip on a strand of the braid, but he can’t bring himself to get frustrated when Kurapika flashes him a smile. 

“Wanna go?” Kurapika asks him. Leorio gently tilts Kurapika’s chin forward again so that he’s facing ahead again, focusing back on completing his pathetic excuse of a braid--he decides to start over again. 

“Yeah, why not? Should be fun,” Leorio mutters in concentration but lets out a snicker when Kurapika cheers with little claps at his agreement. 

Gon jumps up and down, turning back to Killua. “Awesome! Killua, we have chaperons now!” 

“You idiot, you gave away our plan!” Killua hisses at him with a hit to the noggin. 

Kurapika offers a pout, “awe, you guys didn’t want to hang out with me? Am I not fun?”

Gon dismisses Kurapika's mock sadness with his hands. “N-no, that’s not it! You’re fun, really fun! But it’s just a bonus because you two are adults, and--”

“No,” Killua interjects, “if your idea of fun is tormenting us every morning, you aren’t fun!”

Kurapika lowers his head, Leorio stepping back when he jumps out of the chair. He looked crazy with half a braid in his hair and the rest in a side ponytail as he made a giant grin. “Is that so?” 

Gon is the first to take off up the stairs, yelling behind him, “Killua, look what you did!” 

Killua, after a beat, runs after him, “I didn’t think he’d do anything with Leorio doing his hair!” 

Leorio can only sigh with an eye roll when Kurapika rushed after them, cueing the screams and shouts of desperation. He took Kurapika’s place on the stool, deciding to give up on his adult child, but the fond smile on his face tells the opposite. 

  * \- 



“Kurapika, are you going to share?”

“I wasn’t intending to, no,” Kurapika said through a mouthful of cake, forking up some and pretending to have a problem with giving Leorio a bite of it. Leorio took the bite of cake off the fork, humming in approval of the taste. They were sitting on a bench surrounded by all the toys Gon and Killua won at the game booths. It got so bad that they were banned from some of them after nearly winning all the prizes and they still wouldn’t let up. Leorio won Kurapika a cute plush Whale and pet goldfish after Kurapika sternly declared he wanted it to a very exasperated Leorio. 

“How long do you think your goldfish will live?” Leorio pushed, mostly petty that Kurapika was being stingy with his cake. 

Kurapika gasped at him, holding the bowl his fish was in protectively. “Please keep Pairo out of your bitterness.”

“You named it already?”

“Yes, I did,” Kurapika confirmed courtly, giving Leorio the rest of his cake, making his eyes light up. 

While Leorio finished the cake and Kurapika watched Pairo swim to and fro in his bowl, Gon and Killua ran up to them with more prizes; Kurapika guessed they got banned or else they wouldn’t be here. 

“The fireworks are gonna start soon,” Gon announced to them, bouncing up and down on the soles of his boots. “The best place to see them is on the beach, as the sky is the clearest there at night. We’re gonna drop these off at Aunt Mito’s stand and come back to go!”

Kurapika walked alongside Leorio, holding his hand and they subconsciously bump hips with no mind to space apart. The teenagers were running ahead of them, snickering and laughing about things only they knew. Kurapika stopped only for a short while when they came across a river on their trip. He bent down and kindly tilted his fish friend out of the bowl and into the body of water. Pairo circled around a few times before swimming opposite of the ocean, away from them. The moon created their clearing to the ocean, Kurapika’s flats sinking into the soft sand when they got off the rocky patch and finally arrived at the beach. It was cool and the wind made his tunic billow out. The breeze felt nice and the smell of saltwater strongly felt familiar and like home, like at the fishing port. 

They could still hear the faint pounding of music back at the village.

“Guys, guys, it’s starting any second now!” Gon exclaimed to them, running up where the waves barely inched over, turning around to look over the trees in the forest. Killua sat down beside him, leaning back on his hands and even though he tried to suppress it, Kurapika could tell he was just as excited to see the fireworks. 

Leorio gripped his hand firmer, his free arm wrapped around his waist as he brought him closer. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel great,” Kurapika replied softly, wrapping his arms around Leorio’s shoulders. It took him a moment to realize Leorio was slowly swaying them to the soft pounding of music they could hear from their spot. They couldn’t make out the words and it seemed to be poppy, but they slowly danced anyway. “I’m happy I’m here with you guys. And that I met you.”

Leorio grinned at him with a warm expression. The shading of the moon shined on him just right, making his usually warm skin a refreshingly cool temperature. Kurapika leaned his cheek on his shoulder, closing his eyes, just feeling their feet rotate around the sand.

“I feel the same way," Leorio said, "I’m happy that you’re happy. I’ll try and make you happy all the time, just like now.”

Kurapika nuzzled into him more and he couldn’t control the smile spreading across his face at Leorio’s words. He wishes he could say the same but the words are caught in his throat. Kurapika’s still growing and learning and moving on. He can’t guarantee something as vital as someone’s happiness--but like Leorio, he’ll try. Because being happy and satisfied is a fulfilling emotion, a high he hasn’t felt in forever. He wants to share it with anyone he can, Kurapika would be more than pleased to start with Leorio. 

“Pika,” Leorio calls him by his nickname for him and his voice is deep in his ear. 

Kurapika offers a dazed, “hm?”

Leorio pulls away from their embrace, making Kurapika move his head off of his shoulder. Leorio’s lifts his chin up with the hook of his finger. Kurapika seeing him tilting his head and closing his eyes after they subtly trail his lips. So he meets him halfway there, maybe a little eagerly with the way Leorio makes a noise of surprise when their lips hastily collide. 

Then there’s the explosion of fireworks and teenage boys’ screams and shouts of amazement as colors burst all around them in the sky. 

It was by no means a perfect kiss, nothing like in the movies. Their teeth briefly collide due to Kurapika diving right in, but it makes them laugh until Leorio tries again, and then it’s the perfect kiss. When they both pull away at the same time, they look at the sky, Gon and Killua up and chasing each other in a game of tag Kurapika didn’t even know started. 

Before either of them could say something other than stare into each other’s eyes, Gon presses his hand into Kurapika’s back. 

“You’re it, lovebird!” Gon shouts teasingly, running down the beach. Kurapika is shocked when Leorio instantly lets go of him and steps back with a wink.

“You heard him, you’re it!” He says before jogging away, leaving him in the middle of the beach by himself.

Kurapika laughs and rolls up his sleeves, despite not being in the best of running shoes, he takes off.

**Author's Note:**

> please, don't be shy to tell me how you like it so far! i'd love to hear your thoughts!


End file.
